Ra (WOD)
Ra or Re is the Egyptian god of the sun. Overview In the World of Darkness there are several different accounts of Ra given by different factions. Vampire: The Masquerade Re features prominently in Setite lore surrounding their founder. As it is custom with them, there are many different versions. Ra the God In the most widespread versions of Setite lore, Ra was deemed a god, often identified with the Demiurge of gnostic theology. It is said among the clan that the gods lived on Earth and ruled Egypt directly. Eventually the sun-god Ra grew old and decided to retire. He chose his great-grandson Osiris as his heir and successor. But that did not sat well with Osiris' brother, Set, for he was the mightiest warrior among the gods who guarded the sun-barque of Ra every night as it passed under the Earth from the gates of sunset to the gates of dawn, battling Apophis, the Great Serpent of Darkness. The succession of Ra brought great strife among his descendents until Horus prevailed and Ra gave Set two foreign goddesses as concubines and made him god of storms saying that "He will thunder in the sky and make men afraid." In another version of this tale Ra is depicted as a malevolent tyrant. It is said the First City was called Annu, and it was the city of Ra. The story goes much like the version mentioned above, but it has a radically different ending. According to this version, after the triumph of Horus Ra turned on his defender and cursed Set to live in darkness forever. Then the gods thrust Set into Duat, the dark Underworld of the dead, and the river of death whose waters come from the Primeval Ocean itself, where Set fought the great serpent Apophis once more. He slew the Worm of Darkness and ate its heart. With Apep's death Set took on Apep's dark wisdom and learned secrets hidden from the beginning of the world. When Ra had created the world, he gave it life through his own semen, creating gods and the souls of human beings alike. Souls differed in size but not in kind. Jealous Ra lied to all his children. He told them that he was mightiest of all things, creator of the universe, when he merely shaped a tiny portion of the Primeval Waters. Now, however, Set knew the truth: all souls could grow as mighty as their tyrant father and become creators themselves. Set returned to the world by stealth. The Primeval Waters carry life as well as death. Every year, the gates of the world open to let the Primeval Waters bring new life through the yearly inundation of the Nile. Set disguised himself as a water-serpent and slipped through the gates with the rushing waters. He swore to overthrow Ra – not for revenge but for compassion, to liberate the souls Ra held in bondage. Despite the power gained from Apophis, Set still had to hide from the sun; he could not break the curse of Ra. Nor did he truly live, for he had tasted the waters of death. As soon as Ra learned from the Moon that Set had defeated Apophis and escaped the Underworld, he extended his curse to the twelve human disciples with whom Set had shared blood, decreeing that all who joined Set's rebellion against the gods would share his banishment from the Sun and his castration, and that having sealed their pact in blood the thirteen would feed on blood alone. And so, from the curses of Ra and the power of Apophis, Set and his twelve disciples became the first vampires. Ra the Mortal A Cainite Egyptologist called Sir Marriot D'Urban tells a secular tale about Ra and Set, the founder of his own clan. According to Marriot, Ra was a mighty chieftain under whose leadership the primitive peoples of the Nile conquered and united Upper and Lower Egypt – as a good Setite Marriot remarks that the kingdom was consolidated largely due to Set's skill at arms, however. But Ra was a jealous ruler. He commanded his son and daughter, Geb and Nut, to bear no children of their own fearing that such offspring might covet his power (it was only through trickery that the pair birthed sons and daughters). He was also wary of the influence of Set and Osiris, who had married their own sisters Isis and Nephthys respectively, and while Osiris fathered Horus, Set produced no children at all. As Ra grew feeble with age, his mind decayed. He ordered the deaths of Geb and Nut for siring children and betraying his command. His son Geb was buried alive and his daughter Nut, after she had been killed, was dismembered, her flesh fed to the vultures – in later years the martyred brother and sister would eventually be worshiped as gods because of their tragic fate. Great-hearted Set cried out against his parents' murder, and fought Ra, whom he now hated. As punishment for his loyalty to his parents, Set was exiled to the deserts which flanked the thin strips of fertile land on either side of the Nile while his treacherous elder brother Osiris remained silent, prostrating himself before Ra like a cur. Declaring himself loyal to his grandfather, Osiris was made Ra's heir, and as soon as Ra died he became the King of Upper and Lower Egypt. Obsequious to the end, Osiris declared his late grandfather divine, and so the worship of Ra the Sun God became established throughout the lands of the Nile. Set would return when he heard of his grandfather's death only to be exiled once again, this time by his brother. Traveling to the land of Assyria, Set would be eventually discovered by his future sire, a childe of Caine. Werewolf: The Apocalypse Re is one of the many names and aspects of the Celestine Helios. References Category:World of Darkness characters